Home

October 17, 2017

Light Combat Aircraft Tejas may soon get French array radars

French defence firm Thales has developed an active array radar to meet
the specific needs of the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) to equip
80 Tejas Mk1A Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) for the Indian Air Force.

The
development was shared by Thales in a statement issued today. To meet
the needs of HAL, Thales says it is offering a lightweight, compact
active array radar. “The latter is a result of Thales’ unmatched
expertise as regards the development and mastery of active array
technologies – as demonstrated by the RBE2 radar installed on Rafale,”
said Thales in a statement.

The firm said it has successfully
completed an initial flight test campaign designed to measure its
performance. The tests conducted during mid 2017 at the Cazaux air base
in France, on a test bench aircraft, focused on meteorological analyses
of the radar performance.

“These test flights proved that the
radar is fully operational and perfectly corresponds to the specific
requirements of HAL for its combat and air superiority missions. It is
therefore ready and able to adapt to the tight schedule imposed by the
Mk1A LCA,” said Thales.

The radar is designed for air-to-air
superiority and strike missions, based on Active Electronically Scanning
Array (AESA) technology, enabling the radar to achieve long detection
ranges and multi-target tracking capabilities. The radar also provides
simultaneous modes of operation for air-to-air, air-to-ground and
air-to-sea operation modes, and weapon deployment, according to Thales.

“In
just four months, thanks to our solid, proven experience with the RBE2,
we’ve been able to carry out successful flights to test the performance
of the key features of the radar we’re offering for the TEJAS Mk1A
light fighter. This is a clear guarantee of its extremely high degree of
operational reliability and clearly sets us apart from our competitors
as regards this call for tender,” said Philippe Duhamel, Executive
Vice-President, Defence Mission Systems activities, Thales.

Last year, HAL had issued a tender for AESA radars for Tejas Mk-1A LCAs.